I've only used Apple laptops and it doesn't give me any more problems in the crash/slowdown department than Linux.
OTOH, reading the MacFormat forums as I do, I notice that some of these iMacs seem to run quite hot. My MacBook Pro generally hovers between 30 and 40C on its stand, but some of these iMacs register temperatures of 90C, I wouldn't be surprised if that caused some problems.
Having also used Vista on rare occasions, I would not, under any circumstances, prefer it to OSX.

> I've only used Apple laptops and it doesn't give me any
> more problems in the crash/slowdown department than Linux.

I`m no expert on Macs at all and my knowledge on Linux is
so diverse that usually any help I ask for no one seems to have
an answer to. But I can only go on what my daughter`s
experience is on the Mac front.

If she says they are not what they are made out to be then
I have to believe her as she does use them daily now...

She used to say that Vista was SSLLOOWW but those Macs
are SSSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWWW man, and unreliable.

I can only presume that the unreliability and crsah problems
are beacuse of the UNIs networking system and its admin
incompetence...

I can only presume that the unreliability and crsah problemsare beacuse of the UNIs networking system and its adminincompetence...

If they are multi-user machines, I suspect the problems are quite likely to lie with the users, I don't specifically mean your daughter, you understand.

My old PowerBook is a bit slow, but then so are other machines I have of that vintage I try to run modern, full-blown OSes on.

My newer MacBook Pro is very snappy, especially since the Snow Leopard update, I didn't encounter any of the many problems other upgraders did, but then I do tend to take the time to read the instructions and prepare.

My experience with Macs has been largely positive and I like the way OSX integrates well into a mostly Linux network.

Did she add RAM over the basic? Apple is notorious for shipping their hardware without enough RAM. Never buy the RAM from them either, unless you like it hard from behind (if you catch my drift there).

I'm inclined to agree, Finder is by far the worst aspect of Mac use, it's a good job Spotlight is there to actually find things. Quite why they can't manage to let Finder have dual-pane view is beyond me as well. They derived Webkit from Konqueror's KHTML, they could have learned a few other lessons from it while they were about it.

Bazza wrote:Is it not possible to run two windows of Finder muchlike Windows Explorer to give pseudo-dual pane effect?

Of course, but I've got used to Konqueror, right click and select divide vertically or horizonatlly, you can also sub-divide and end up with as many divisions as you need. Having two windows is never as good as you have to resize them to the fit on the screen together. And multi-column view is no good unless the desired directories are in the same hierarchy.
Then again, Konqueror comprehends a good many more protocols than Finder, making it a drop in substitute for other dedicated software when managing files across ssh, ftp and webdav, to name but three I have used.